An appliance such as a refrigerator can include an icemaker to provide ice cubes to a user. The ice cubes can be produced automatically or without any interaction with a user. Generally, the icemaker is disposed in a compartment inside the refrigerator and often ice cubes can be can be dispensed through an opening in the door.
A duct door can be coupled to the opening such that it separates the ice making and storage assembly from the outside of the appliance. A mechanism is needed to actuate the duct door from a closed position to an open position. When the duct door is in the open position, ice cubes can pass through a chute to the outside of the appliance.
Conventionally, the mechanism to actuate the duct door includes a solenoid. A solenoid is a linear actuator comprised of an electromagnet and biased piston that is connected to a crank and when the solenoid is energized the piston moves to turn the crank and move the duct door. The use of a solenoid can create undesirable noise during ice dispensing. In addition, solenoids consume a significant amount of power.
In another conventional approach, a DC stepper motor or AC motor can be used as the mechanism to actuate the duct door. Due to inherent design properties of a stepper motor, a significant amount of vibration is created during actuation of the motor. The vibration creates undesirable noise. When a constant-power AC motor is used to actuate a duct door, numerous elements such as cam rollers, cam followers, and/or position detection switches must be coupled to the motor. This increases the complexity of the device and the manufacturing process while also increasing the cost.
Thus, a need exists for an improved ice dispensing control system for actuating a duct door. A system and method that can reduce noise and power consumption during duct door actuation would be particularly useful.